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Police get new powers to test drivers for drugs

Police across Canada will have new powers to investigate drivers suspected of being impaired by drugs starting July 2, when penalties for driving while impaired will also go up.

Police who suspect drug impairment will have authority to require roadside physical co-ordination tests to gauge sobriety. If, in the opinion of the officer, the suspect fails, then the driver will be taken to a police detachment to be tested by a "drug evaluation expert," which all police services will likely have to train.

Neither city police officials or the South Bruce OPP media relations officer were familiar enough with the changes to comment.

However, Ontario Provincial Police Chief Superintendent Bill Grodzinski, commander of the OPP highway safety division, said Wednesday that "what we're seeing is a very significant shift . . . What we're seeing is more drug-impaired operators."

The legislation "provides police with

that additional help that we want." The drug evaluations experts will

have authority to demand samples of saliva, urine or blood to determine the presence of alcohol or a drug without a warrant, Department of Justice spokeswoman Carole Saindon said.

Tests on the fluids can detect seven families of drugs, although there's no specific drug impairment level as there is for alcohol.

It will take "a number of years" to train enough officers as drug evaluation experts, said Grodzinski, the chairman of an Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police committee consulted about the legislation. The drug evaluations will include measurements of blood pressure, body temperature and pulse, assess pupil size and muscle tone to determine impairment, Saindon said. The legislation allows roadside and detachment tests to be video-recorded.

The changes are part of the federal government's Tackling Violent Crime Bill, some aspects of which have already taken effect including higher mandatory prison sentences for violent crimes, making it tougher to get bail and raising the age of sexual consent.

Minimum penalties for impaired driving by alcohol or a drug will climb to $1,000 from $600 for a first offence, 30 days in jail instead of 14 upon a second conviction and 120 days in jail for subsequent convictions, up from 90 days.

Refusing or failing to comply with police demands for drug sobriety tests or bodily fluid samples will lead to the same minimum $1,000 fine and one-year driving prohibition on a first offence as would be imposed for a drinking and driving conviction.

It will also be an offence for a driver who knows or should know they have caused a fatal accident to refuse to take a drug impairment test or provide samples. The maximum penalty under that provision is a life sentence.

Grodzinski also noted new, more accurate, breath-testing equipment should be arriving at OPP detachments this fall at a cost of $2 million.

"Impaired driving continues to be the leading cause of criminal death in Canada" despite great reductions over the years. In Ontario, about one-quarter of the road fatalities are alcohol-related, according to the Ministry of Transportation.

Meanwhile, provincial legislation will target drivers with some alcohol in their system, but not enough to be charged criminally.

Grodzinski said they will be "the toughest sanctions in the country and everyone is looking at them" when they take effect, which he understands will happen this fall.

The Safer Roads for a Safer Ontario Act would increase roadside driving suspensions for people who blow a warning, or 0.05 to 0.08 blood alcohol concentration, in roadside tests to three days for a first offence instead of 12 hours and seven days for a second offence. The driver will also have to take a remedial course.

Third or subsequent instances incur a 30-day suspension and the driver must undergo a remedial measures course and limit their driving to a vehicle with a ignition lock requiring breath samples for six months.

The act also lets authorities seize vehicles from people who continue to drink and drive.